


Coquettish Ingenue

by G_the_G



Category: The Martian (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-18 20:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16524392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_the_G/pseuds/G_the_G
Summary: The first time Mindy Park officially meets Mark Watney, it's a lot less awkward than she'd expected it to be.





	Coquettish Ingenue

How do you tell someone that you have been and may still be extremely emotionally invested in their well-being and life? Especially when you have never actually met said person. Mindy had debated this question for weeks; ever since they brought Mark Watney home.

After all those months, he had made it back safely, undergone all necessary monitoring for health and psyche, and was now parading through NASA at all hours to thank people and see what it looked like from the more boring, less likely to murder you side. He was still a bit too thin, but his color was now closer to the pre-mission photos she’d wound up pulling up so many times during her shifts. And that smile and laugh were just as strong as ever.

But she found herself, after all those months of monitoring him, sitting a mere ten feet away in the cafeteria watching him jovially chat with old friends and strangers alike.

“No, I’m telling you. You think it sounds bad, but it’s worse. So much worse. Ask Martinez, he’ll back me up!”

“Martinez is just as much a troublemaker as you are, Watney.”

“I feel like I should resent that. But fine, ask Lewis if you don’t believe me. Vogel’s sleep-singing was the absolute  _worst_!”

His story caused ripples of laughter around the room, but started to make Mindy wish she was drinking something stronger than coffee. She had a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, she’d been able to successfully defend her dissertation against the dragon of the Engineering department, she had earned herself a promotion after impressing the director of NASA himself. Add to those facts that Mark Watney was a man she’d heard had given Rich Purnell an impromptu serenade of David Bowie when he’d called him. While she hadn’t been able to confirm that detail, Mark was happy to be alive and willing to talk to any and every person who had a hand in it, directly or otherwise. And yet there she sat unsure how to even say hi, reaching the inevitable conclusion that she was being ridiculous.

The last stragglers that had been talking to Mark made their way out, no doubt late for some meeting or training. Everyone else was either too shy, awkward, or completely oblivious to take a chance to talk to him. But for her own pride, she wasn’t really ready to qualify as one of those three, was she?

“Have you ever seen the movie The Vow?”

It wasn’t until Mark turned to face her that she realized she’d said those words out loud. Shit. She tucked her head and took another bite of her sandwich, hoping to hide the flush that was no doubt creeping into her cheeks as best she could.

“Unless it was something from a stupidly long time before I was born or this century, probably not.”

“Oh, okay, nevermind.”

She continued to chew her food after mumbling at him, but she didn’t even taste it anymore. How the hell was she supposed to hold any normal conversation after bringing up her preteen guilty-pleasure? It was like she’d never talked to a boy since high school. Mentally preparing herself for her walk of embarrassment back to her desk before she tucked tail and went home for the day, she was half-surprised when he continued talking to her.

“How’s your lunch? You got the BLT, right? Any good?”

“Yeah. Uh,” she paused, settling back into her seat, “it’s actually my dinner because I work the 3AM shift. But I like it. How’s your lasagna?”

He looked back at the plate in front of him offhandedly. With all his socializing he’d only been able to eat about half of it. “Not bad, but admittedly I’m kind of a fan of anything I didn’t have to make by relying on my asshole and tempting fate with another fiery explosion for survival. So this is definitely way less of a fu-”

He cut himself off and she couldn’t help a giggle that escaped, remembering all the messages he’d tortured her bosses with. The ones she had loved having to relay because it wasn’t just another day he was alive, but another day he was quintessentially himself. And something about that familiar humor had her relaxing, fingers loosening from their death grip around the edges of her tray.

“Sorry. Sometimes I forget I am talking to others in public and not narrating my life for posterity anymore.”

“You swear for posterity?”

He shrugged, obviously proud of himself.

“Someone has to teach them to do it correctly.”

She laughed and he gave her his trademark winning grin. But after a moment he squinted at her in concentration.

“Sorry, not to sound like a complete dick, but I’m pretty sure you know who I am and I have no idea who you are.”

“Oh. I’m Mindy park. I, uh, work in SatCon.”

He tilted his head and then his eyes went wide.

“Shit. You’re the one that found me!”

Not sure how to handle the new expression of joy on his face, she looked down as she reached for her coffee.

“I noticed the changes in the photos. So they had me monitor your progress, yes.”

He got up, forgetting about his already neglected lasagna to sit in the empty seat next to her. He rested one arm on the back of his chair and the other on the table as he fully faced her, leaning in with a teasing smirk.

“So you were watching over me. Like an earthbound guardian angel, huh?”

Mindy glanced up quickly with a self-deprecating scoff. She caught his gaze, still incredibly bright, and noticed that there was more gray in his hair, a few more lines around his eyes. She took another sip of her now tepid coffee, trying to stop herself from examining how his face had changed from the mission photo she’d looked at so many times.

“More I got paid to stalk you, but yeah.” Stalking?! Why the hell had she said that? She once again lifted her mug, this time to try and hide her grimace. But he didn’t seem to notice it or her flustered nature at all.

“Man, I better take you to dinner.”

She slowly set the coffee down, asking the first thing that came to mind. “Why?”

Mark’s smile dimmed and he leaned back a bit at her reflexive answer.

“You saying no?”

“No!” Her quick, nervous response stopped his retreat, but he still waited for her to continue. She tried to calm herself, lower her voice, and not come off as a complete stereotypical awkward engineer. “I’m not saying no. But my question still stands. Why?”

After a couple seconds Mark’s eyes crinkled at the corners and he shifted, somehow bringing himself a bit closer without really moving at all.

“I could say something about how I want to thank you finding me and looking out for me, but honestly, after surviving the shitstorm and near-death-fest that was Mars, why would I hold off on asking a woman who I find attractive out on a date?”

She couldn’t think of anything to say before he chuckled and added, “And full disclosure, I’m hoping I can work the whole vulnerable, formerly near-death angle some more. Gain an edge since you were looking out for me and might have some sort of a soft spot.”

“You mean stalking.”

Shit. She said it again. But the hoped it at least came across as flirtatious. Her hopes were answered when his face just split in that same-old grin.

“Eh, stalk is just a five letter word for love.”

Love?

“Too soon? Should have saved that one for the second date?”

Her laugh came easily this time, and while her heartbeat continued to thrum a bit erratically, she finally felt like she had settled into the rhythm their conversation was building.

“What makes you so sure you’d get a second date?”

At her invitation, his cockiness kicked in full swing. “Because if you’re in SatCon you’re probably an egghead like me. And you’d definitely want to hear about how I rigged up the Hermes to broadcast ACDC for 24-hours straight to get back at Lewis for the disco. But that’s definitely a second date story.”

She sat up with a full smile and gave him a teasing pat on the knee.

“How about we go for date one and see how that works out.”

He hadn’t shifted back when she straightened, so their faces were much closer than she expected. But she didn’t regret it in the least when she saw how his lips twitched before the full grin followed.

“I’ll take it.” 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wrote this like two years ago and it's just been hanging out in


End file.
